


How His Friends Became Her Friends

by boundbyspells



Category: How I Met Your Mother
Genre: F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-11-20
Updated: 2007-11-20
Packaged: 2017-10-26 05:34:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/279294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boundbyspells/pseuds/boundbyspells
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"She knew from the moment she met Ted that he was one of those guys where, if you date him, you're dating his friends, too."</p>
            </blockquote>





	How His Friends Became Her Friends

**Author's Note:**

> after he's met your mother; written during the writers' strike in S2

She knew from the moment she met Ted that he was one of those guys where, if you date him, you're dating his friends, too. Dating Marshall and Lily? No problem. Her first college boyfriend had been a lot like Marshall, down to being the youngest son of a family of Midwestern Lutherans with a mayonnaise salad fixation. And the girl she'd kissed in college during her experimental period (all twenty-three minutes of it) had been a lot like Lily, at least in looks. Plus, the Marshall-and-Lily show was hilarious, though for the first few dates, she'd always felt a bit inadequate in the face of all. The. Freakin'. In-jokes.

But that's what friends are _like_ , and she'd tried dating the loners, the big bad wolves with no pack, and that had worked about as well as you'd expect. And her own group of friends had recently broken up--Jill and John had moved to Nova Scotia because Jill was getting a PhD in folklore, and there aren't a lot of places you can get a PhD in folklore, and John had gone with her, God love him, and he was playing house-husband while telecommuting. And Laurie had followed some random guy to California, and surprisingly, it was working out, though she thought maybe the California weather--sorry, the California _climate_ \--was as much to blame as any finer qualities in this random guy. (Okay, his name was Eric, and he was pretty decent, except for what he thought a bagel was.) And while Sher hadn't left New York, Sher'd been promoted in a big way, and had no time to pee, let alone see her.

And, damn, New York was lonely without friends. So, yeah, Ted and his ready-made group, that was a big windfall. She downright adored Lily and Marshall.

However, she'd always known you can't throw a yellow umbrella into someone's life without causing ripples. There was the Robin-factor, after all: prior to the yellow umbrella, there'd been a blue French horn. Or smurf dildo. She'd never gotten that story quite straight.

But after a mutual assessment period, Robin turned out to be fine. There are some women who can never, ever let go, and there are some women who let go too much, and Robin was neither of them. The boundaries were clear. They were never going to be the kind of friends who'd compare notes about their shared man--and thank _God_ for that--but weird territoriality was also out of the equation.

Plus, hey, there was the very tidy fact that Robin was totally in love with Barney. And Barney with Robin. It was just weird that no one _knew_ it. Not Barney. Not Robin. But sometimes, the people involved are the last to know. Ted's willful ignorance could be explained away, because it was an ex-girlfriend situation, and men always wear ex-girlfriend glasses that don't let them see things like that. She didn't know what Marshall and Lily's excuse was... Maybe they did know and just didn't want to risk unbalancing the group dynamic.

So, she brought it up to Marshall and Lily once when the three of them got to McLaren's early one night. She decided to just throw it out there. "How long?" she asked, all casual-like.

"How long what?"

"How long has Barney been in love with Robin?" She thought she'd start with Barney. Barney seemed easier; his character was more transparent to her, though to make assumptions about Barney Stinson would be tantamount to being a fool. But she was an astute observer of character, and a student of human folly--she and Elizabeth Bennet, two peas in a pod.

"Barney's not in love with--" Marshall began, and he made that weird face all men make whenever the subject of improbable love is broached, and brushed his hand at the air like he was waving away smoke.

Lily interrupted with a shrill gasp of "Oh, my god!" and reached over and clutched her hands. "How did I not see that?"

And she'd had to hide a smugly triumphant grin all the rest of the night. She'd known these people for like four weeks and she'd rooted out their biggest secret. Lily started listing off all the little signs and portents, while Marshall's eyes grew bigger and bigger with the realization, until he was listing little details, too:

"She's the only one who'll play laser tag with him!"

"And remember when she said, like sixteen times, that no, she and he had never dated?"

"And he _counted_ the no's?"

"And he looked so annoyed!"

"And he thinks she's beautiful without make-up!"

"And whenever he gets sick, he won't let anyone else take care of him!"

It was pretty easy to see when they turned the corner, and realized that Robin loved Barney, too.

Ted came in at about that point, and Marshall and Lily managed to clam up until he went to the bathroom. They turned to each other and did their silent couple communication thing.

She smiled at them. "Guys. Don't worry. I think Ted will be okay with it."

Lily looked like she didn't want to disagree, but she had to. Marshall just shook his head.

She smiled more broadly at them. "Trust me."

"Look, we don't want to be rude, but... well... Ted... Barney..."

"Do you think Ted won't think Barney is good enough for her? Because... I don't think that's the case. I think you guys are friends with Barney because you know he's got more going on than his suits."

Lily tugged Marshall's sleeve. "Remember when he flew to San Francisco, and...?"

Marshall melted at that. "Yeah." He smiled at Lily.

"So does Ted," she said, watching over their shoulders as Ted approached from the bathroom, flicking his hands a little to get the water off of them. McLaren's had been out of paper towels for a week.

"So does Ted what?"

Lily and Marshall looked like Thumper and Bambi in the face of an on-coming tractor trailer, but she just scooted over for Ted and took his hand when he sat down. "Ted remembers Barney is actually a good guy."

Ted started to laugh and say something snide, but he caught the mood of the table pretty quickly and stopped. "Why is this a topic of conversation?"

"Because Barney and Robin might be in love with each other." She decided to be diplomatic and throw in the "might."

And she knew everything was going to be okay, and that the ripples she'd made were totally the right kind of ripples, the kind that every group needs now and again to shake them out of their complacency, but not in a "that bitch took our complacency!" kind of way.

And there was a weird tension around Ted's eyes that relaxed right then, a weird tension that she'd always just thought of as Ted's expression that just _eased_ when she said that. And he gave her this really cute smile and this glance that said, "I'm doing that silent couple communication thing, and it's the first time for us, and I totally know that." Then he slipped his arm around her, looked over at Lily and Marshall, and said, "Robin and Barney? Why didn't I see it before?"

It was a great moment, all considered. First meeting, first kiss, first time, first "I love you"--all really paled behind the first moment of telepathy.

She smiled and ordered another beer, and then leaned forward to plot with the others how they were going to hide this revelation from Barney and Robin.

It was great to have friends.


End file.
